Wikimedia’s gender trouble is well-documented. In a 2011 survey, the Wikimedia Foundation found that less than 10% of its contributors identify as female. The reasons for the gender gap are up for debate; suggestions include leisure inequality, how gender socialization shapes public comportment, and the sometimes contentious nature of Wikipedia’s talk pages. The practical effect of this disparity, however, is not. Content is skewed by the lack of female participation. This represents an alarming absence in an increasingly important repository of shared knowledge.Let’s change that. Join us at University of British Columbia campus, Buchanan B202 - 1866 Main Mall, on Saturday March 7 & Sunday March 8, from 11-5pm Or at Emily Carr University Library on Friday March 6 & Saturday March 7, for communal updating of Wikipedia entries on subjects related to art and feminism. We will provide tutorials for the beginner Wikipedian, reference materials, childcare, and refreshments. Computers are in the space for your use, or bring your laptop, power cord and ideas for entries that need updating or creation. For the editing-averse, we urge you to stop by to show your support. Childcare requires advanced RSVP; please contact us at christine.donofrio@ubc.ca and let us know the first names and number of children requiring care, their ages, and what time you plan on attending. Women, women-identified, and male allies welcomed. RSVP on Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/events/1558925007687895/ and sign on to the event on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/…/Vancouver,_B…/ArtAndFeminism_2015Edit-a-thons are taking place across the globe on International Women’s Day weekend, March 7-8, 2015. Confirmed satellite edit-a-thon hosts include: Morton R Godine Library at The Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Boston; F/LAT, Brussels, Belgium; Los Angeles County Museum of Art in collaboration with East of Borneo; Canadian Women’s Art History Initiative, Concordia University and Eastern Bloc, Montreal; Fondation Galeries Lafayette, Paris; Albert M. Greenfield Library at University of the Arts, Philadelphia; Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives at Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA; and online in a Google Hangout with Addie Wagenknecht, with many more in development.Event Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/…/Vancouver,_B…/ArtAndFeminism_2015

Great news! Professor Lisa Nathan agreed to be our faculty adviser. This is the first step to becoming a real club under LASSA. Next step? We have to adopt our constitution, name a chair and treasurer, and show up at a LASSA meeting. We're on our way!

Additionally, the Progressive Librarians Guild of Vancouver (the former PLG @ UBC) has given us the thumbs up! YAY!

Thank you, you visiting this site, for all the support. When I started my degree at SLAIS, it was a big change from my political science undergraduate degree and my time working with NGOs. Everyone was more agreeable, everyone was proud of their field, it was a loving and positive environment. It wasn't long, however, before I started noticing that this quiet, peaceful, and somewhat complacent attitude was a Cowslip's Warren, covering a darker underbelly (Watership down reference? Anyone?). For the first year at SLAIS, I wondered why people weren't more worked up about it-- why, in our female-dominated profession, is management male-dominated? Are women really not promoted because "they just don't apply", or is there more to it? Why do we still use such blatantly racist cataloguing systems? Why do librarians talk about neutrality like it's always a good thing? And why is everyone so white?When I started to voice my frustrations, I realized quickly that I had underestimated my peers. You were quick to jump into the conversation and contribute ideas that I hadn't even considered. These discussions have been some of the more enriching of my degree, and I'm deeply grateful to you wonderful, critical-thinking, norm-questioning bad-asses. Just because our profession is old does not mean it has to be conservative. Just because we're expected to be frumpy doesn't mean we can't be free-thinkers.

I look forward to many more discussions that end with more questions than answers, and I look forward to leaving this place better than we found it.